Tomasz Czechowicz

Tomasz Czechowicz (born June 1970) is a Polish entrepreneur and private equity investor. He is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of MCI Capital SA, one of the most dynamic growth/private equity groups in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as supervisory board member of companies across Europe. He runs a group of investment funds active in Poland and CEE, Germany, Austria, UK, Scandinavia, Russian Federation and Turkey,[1] mostly supporting technology, travel and internet-based companies.[2]

Tomasz Czechowicz
Tomasz Czechowicz
Born1970
Legnica, Poland
NationalityPolish
Alma materWroclaw University of Technology
Warsaw School of Economics
OccupationBusinessman
Net worth$122 million (March 2016)

Education

Czechowicz holds the title of Master of Business Administration received from the University of Minnesota and the Warsaw School of Economics. He also holds a master's degree in management, which he earned from the Wrocław University of Economics with prior bachelor's degree in industrial engineering.

Business ventures

First business activities, as a teenager, included coding, along with producing and selling computer accessories at the trade center in Wrocław,[3] later in Warsaw as well.[4] When he moved to Wrocław to attend the university, he also began importing old and new computers to Poland, among them Commodore 64s, which made him one of the company's largest European customers.[3]

In 1990 Tomasz Czechowicz, Janusz Krasnopolski and Tomasz Gomułkiewicz co-founded JTT Computer SA. The company continued importing Commodores, but in 1997 a milestone was achieved by reaching an agreement with Intel and Microsoft to begin assembling their own PC's called ADAX.[5] Czechowicz was the company's CEO until 1998. During these eight years he turned the company into a leading Central European PC assembly and distribution center,[2] which generated the revenue of over $100 mln in total.[6] In a 2006 interview Tomasz Czechowicz said that experience with this company was very important to him and his future business ventures[7] and in an interview from 2016 he admitted that JTT Computer S.A. was one of the biggest business challenges and prepared him well for the following business plans.[4]

After leaving JTT Computer S.A., in 1999 Czechowicz founded MCI Group, one of the leading private equity groups in Poland[8] and in Europe, and has been its Managing Partner since then.

Within the MCI group, he is jointly responsible for preparing and implementing the long-term development strategy, preparing and execution of the business plan, as well as the group's risk management. Tomasz Czechowicz is a member of various supervisory boards, being jointly responsible for providing opinions and decision-making on key strategic and operational matters in the portfolio companies, which have assets under management of PLN 2.3 Bn (Q3’2017).

MCI Capital is a growth capital investment fund focused on digitization and invests in companies from digital disruption, digital adaptation and digital ecosystem areas. It aims to build regional champions. Usual investment ticket ranges from EUR 10M – 25M in growth companies, and can reach up to EUR 100M in buyout companies.

MCI Capital is investing in over 40 companies, including ABC Data, Answear.com, Azimo, eCard/Dotpay, Frisco.pl, Gett, Morele.net, NaviExperts and Prowly.[9] The group is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since February 2001 and on its first day it increased its worth by 50%.[4] MCI is also a member of the Polish Private Equity Association[10] and the Polish Association of Stock Exchange Issuers.[11]

Interesting facts

Obtaining Invia

One of the companies in the MCI's portfolio was Invia.cz, which today is the largest e-travel business in the Central and Eastern European region. Polish edition of Forbes describes a story of obtaining it by Czechowicz, which is related to his love of rock climbing. It took five tries for Czechowicz to reach the summit of Matterhorn,[3] but after his last and successful try by the end of the 2007, he went to Zurich to have a meeting with the representatives of Internet Travel Holding (which were back then the owners of Invia). Forbes implies that Czechowicz reaching the summit of “the symbolic mountain” made such an impression on the ITH's representatives that they decided to sell him Invia.[12] Invia was sold in 2016 to investment fund Rockaway. This action allowed the MCI Group to have one of the best returns in its history.[13]

Investing against Uber

Tomasz Czechowicz, via MCI Capital, invested in Uber's competition – GetTaxi (Gett), an application originating in Israel. It, similarly to Uber, allows to hail a taxi, but with appropriate licences and permissions, including the access to bus lanes in London. As Czechowicz remarks in the interview for Polish edition of Business Insider, “Uber created a brand, which taxi drivers perceive in the same way as unemployment. (…) This is kind of like discussing about the pharmacies. Do we want to have little and local pharmacies with appropriate licences or the big market chains and pharmacies becoming leaders of the market. I don’t think it’s all about a taxi being cheaper by another 5-15%, but it also should be about this service being associated with a certain kind of quality".[14] Since 2016 Gett is in his investment portfolio as a “unicorn” (a company which is worth over $1 bln), at that time first in MCI's funds.[15]

Awards
  • One of the TOP-10 most influential people in European Internet – awarded by Business Week in 2000[16]
  • Global Leader for Tomorrow[17] – awarded by World Economic Forum in Davos in 2001 “for his exceptional feeling of the market, professionalism, vision and business efficiency[18][19]
  • The TOP Manager of Year 2007 – awarded by TOP MANAGEMENT and angel.me within the framework of “The Entrepreneur Awards of the Year” program[20] for successful implementation of MCI Group’s strategy[19]
  • Wektor 2013 – awarded by Employers of Poland to exceptional people from the world of culture, science, business and media in Poland
  • The Top Manager of Year 2015 – awarded by Polish Edition of Businessweek Bloomberg[21] for successful management, successes, persistence, innovations and contesting other companies not only on the domestic market, but also the foreign one
  • List of 100 richest Polish people by Forbes – Tomasz Czechowicz appeared on the list several times,[22] for example: in 2011 (82nd),[23] 2014, 2015 and 2016 (64th)[24]
  • List of 100 richest Polish people by Wprost – Tomasz Czechowicz appeared on the list several times, for example: in 2014 (78th),[25] 2015 (46th),[26] 2016 (66th)[27] and 2017 (89th)[28]
  • CEE Mergers & Acquisitions Award in "Professional" category – awarded on March 23, 2017 by CEE M&A jury for dedication, outstanding results and top quality client services in CEE, SEE and NEE[29]
  • Nominee and finalist, both by himself and together with MCI, in a number of categories in PE Diamonds – awarded by Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, member of Invest Europe[30]

Boards' memberships

Czechowicz is a member of a statutorily required supervisory board or comparable domestic or foreign supervisory body in the companies set out below:

  • ABC Data S.A., Warsaw, Poland
  • Ilindeks Bilgisayar Sistemleri Muhendislik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. Istanbul, Turkey
  • Mika Tur Seyahat Acenteligi ve Turizm Anonim Sirketi (TatilBudur), Istanbul, Turkey
  • ATM S.A., Warsaw, Poland
  • Frisco.pl Sp. z o.o., Warsaw, Poland
  • Morele.net sp. z o.o., Cracow, Poland
  • eCard S.A., Warsaw, Poland
  • Dotpay S.A., Cracow, Poland
  • Mobiltek S.A., Cracow, Poland
  • Eurokoncept Sp. z o.o., Cracow, Poland

Personal interests

Tomasz Czechowicz devotes his free time to a number of sports.[7] He was quoted in Onet Biznes, saying that “Doing sports allows me to decrease the amount of days I need for the holiday. Thanks to this hobby, I keep myself in good condition, which is necessary in this profession."[4] He is active in:

  • long-distance running – Tomasz Czechowicz took part in several marathons, among them numerous Warsaw Marathons, MCI Marathons of Mazuria[31] and Rzeźnik Race in Bieszczady Mountains,[32]
  • triathlon,
  • rock climbing – in an interview for „Polityka” Czechowicz remarks that „mountains allow you to relax and they teach how to assess the risk, since you can pay a lot for every wrong move or bad decision”,[33]
  • skitouring & off-piste skiing,
  • horse riding.

References
  1. "MCI Capital SA". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  2. "Tomasz Czechowicz, Polish entrepreneur, sets the standard for prosperity". Financial Times. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  3. "Tomasz Czechowicz – ludzie – whoiswho Pulsu Biznesu". ludzie.pb.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  4. "Najbogatsi Polacy: drapieżnik z intuicją". Onet Biznes (in Polish). 2013-06-28. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  5. Bonek, Tomasz (2006-03-02). "JTT Computer - bankructwo przez fiskusa, czy na zlecenie konkurencji?". WP money (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  6. onepixeluniverse. "RE-Invest - Portfolio". www.jtt.pl. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  7. Gąsiorowski, Daniel (2006-02-06). "Tomasz Czechowicz, prezes MCI". WP money (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  8. Rooney, Ben (2013-07-17). "Polish Startups Must Look Beyond Home". WSJ. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  9. "MCI portfolio". mci.pl. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  10. "Polish Private Equity Association". Archived from the original on 2015-04-29.
  11. "Polish Association of Stock Exchange Issuers".
  12. "Inwestycyjna podróż Tomasza Czechowicza" (in Polish). 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  13. "MCI makes 11x on €76m Invia exit to Rockaway | Unquote". unquote.com. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  14. "W Izraelu przyblokowali Ubera, czy zrobią to w Polsce? "To dyskusja jak o sieciach aptekarskich"". Business Insider (in Polish). 2017-06-02. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  15. "Tomasz Czechowicz: Mamy pieniądze na zakupy" (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  16. "Tomasz Janusz Czechowicz: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  17. "Weforum.org". Archived from the original on 2015-05-11.
  18. "PEManagers – Tomasz Czechowicz". www.privateequitymanagers.pl. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  19. "Tomasz Czechowicz | najnowsze informacje, komentarze, opinie". CEO Magazyn Polska (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  20. "The Entrepreneur Awards of the Year | Un site utilisant WordPress". theentrepreneurawards.net (in French). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  21. Pasławski, Krzysztof. "Szefowie spółek IT wśród „Top Menedżerów 2015 roku"". www.crn.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  22. "Tomasz Czechowicz" (in Polish). 2013-02-21. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  23. "Tomasz Czechowicz" (in Polish). 2011-03-07. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  24. "2016" (in Polish). 2017-06-27. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  25. "100 Najbogatszych Polaków 2014". Rankingi Wprost (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  26. "100 Najbogatszych Polaków 2015". Rankingi Wprost (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  27. "100 Najbogatszych Polaków 2016". Rankingi Wprost (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  28. "100 Najbogatszych Polaków 2017". Rankingi Wprost (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  29. "Winners announced at the inaugural CEE Merger and Acquisitions (M&A) Awards". CEE Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Awards. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  30. "Another edition of the prestigious "Investment Forum & Private Equity Awards Gala" conference, bringing together the leaders of investment markets, will take place on June 6 at the Westin hotel in Warsaw". www.executive-club.com.pl. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  31. "Enduhub - wyniki sportowe. Bieganie, triathlon, kolarstwo". Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  32. "Wyniki BIEG RZEŹNIKA 2017". wyniki.b4sport.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  33. "Tomasz Czechowicz: Dyktator z laptopem" (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-11-27.
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